Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) Shares Gap Up to $13.73

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $13.73, but opened at $14.26. Elanco Animal Health shares last traded at $14.16, with a volume of 335,059 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ELAN shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Elanco Animal Health in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays boosted their price target on Elanco Animal Health from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Elanco Animal Health from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $17.00 to $15.00 in a report on Thursday, September 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.43.

Elanco Animal Health Trading Up 4.4 %

The company has a current ratio of 2.93, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average of $14.02 and a 200 day moving average of $15.09. The firm has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.40.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.06. Elanco Animal Health had a negative net margin of 27.94% and a positive return on equity of 7.29%. The business had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.18 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Elanco Animal Health Incorporated will post 0.91 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Elanco Animal Health

In other Elanco Animal Health news, CEO Jeffrey N. Simmons bought 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.01 per share, for a total transaction of $1,301,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 145,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,886,450. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Michael J. Harrington acquired 3,500 shares of Elanco Animal Health stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $14.85 per share, with a total value of $51,975.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 81,094 shares in the company, valued at $1,204,245.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey N. Simmons bought 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 12th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $13.01 per share, with a total value of $1,301,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 145,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,886,450. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Elanco Animal Health

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ELAN. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,226,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,468,637 shares of the company’s stock valued at $737,083,000 after acquiring an additional 467,196 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia acquired a new stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health during the fourth quarter worth $4,004,000. Wolf Hill Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Elanco Animal Health in the fourth quarter valued at about $20,683,000. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in Elanco Animal Health in the first quarter valued at about $4,956,000. Institutional investors own 97.48% of the company’s stock.

About Elanco Animal Health

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, an animal health company, innovates, develops, manufactures, and markets products for pets and farm animals. It offers pet health disease prevention products, such as parasiticide and vaccine products that protect pets from worms, fleas, and ticks under the Seresto, Advantage, Advantix, and Advocate brands; pet health therapeutics for pain, osteoarthritis, ear infections, cardiovascular, and dermatology indications in canines and felines under the Galliprant and Claro brands; vaccines, antibiotics, parasiticides, and other products for use in poultry and aquaculture production, as well as nutritional health products, including enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics; and a range of vaccines, antibiotics, implants, parasiticides, and other products used in ruminant and swine production under the Rumensin and Baytril brands.